MOTORCYCLE CLUB PRESIDENT SHOT DEAD

Homicide detectives on Saturday were investigating the fatal drive-by shooting outside the Black Sabbath Motorcycle Club in the Mount Hope area, San Diego police said.

The president of the club, Clyde Major Thompson, 51, was gunned down at the corner of Market and Denby streets, the county Medical Examiner’s Office said.

“He was a problem-solver, he was not a troublemaker,” said John Bunch, national president of the motorcycle club founded in San Diego, speaking from Georgia. “We’re very shocked and waiting with patience and prayer to find out exactly what happened.”

Officers responding to reports of a shooting at 10:50 p.m. Friday found a wounded man in the street, San Diego police said. Thompson was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died at 11:37 p.m., officials said.

Police said the victim and a friend were working on a motorcycle when an SUV pulled up and a passenger opened fire. The SUV headed east on Market Street. The assailant was described as a young man wearing a hooded jacket and black shirt. Police said it was unclear what precipitated the shooting.

A statement about the shooting on the Black Sabbath website identified Thompson by his clubhouse name, Wild Dogg, and said he became president of the San Diego chapter in late 2011.

Bunch said Black Sabbath members historically have been servicemen and tradesmen who use nicknames to avoid misunderstandings with employers.

“We don’t have a motorcycle club that has a reputation for trouble,” he said. “So we can’t imagine who would have the need or the desire to hurt one of our members.”

Thompson was survived by a long-term girlfriend and two daughters, according to the Black Sabbath website.

Morgan Lee • U-T

Paraglider pilot dies following crash on cliffs at Torrey Pines

la jolla

A paraglider pilot died Saturday after a crash that left her suspended on the cliffs of Torrey Pines, San Diego lifeguards said. The county Medical Examiners Office identified the woman as Pamela Hargett, 52, of Inman, N.C.

Hargett’s boyfriend also was paragliding and called 911 when he saw her crash just after noon, authorities said. Lifeguards rappelled down the cliffs at Black’s Beach so the woman could be lifted off by helicopter. Once atop the cliff, Hargett was pronounced dead, San Diego lifeguards said.

The rescue occurred just south of Torrey Pines Gliderport, a renowned launch site for paragliders and hang gliders.

Morgan Lee • U-T

Man arrested in hit-run accident that killed woman in wheelchair

east county

Authorities on Saturday arrested a man suspected of a Friday night hit-and-run that killed a woman as she tried to cross a road in her wheelchair east of El Cajon.

Laurie Susan Whitlow, 49, who lived at a residential care home in unincorporated El Cajon, was trying to cross Olde Highway 80 when she was hit by a car about 9 p.m., the county Medical Examiner’s Office said. The driver continued east on Olde Highway 80. Paramedics tried to revive Whitlow, but she died at the scene.